Jackie had stopped by his place on her way to work to apologize, hardly bothering to wash Daisy from her skin. She kept her hair straight, probably overdid it with the makeup and chose a skirt as short as she felt comfortable wearing, although she didn’t mind if Daisy—or even Sonya—took notice of her legs.

But Eric didn’t seem to want an explanation and she was more than happy not to give one. It was 8 a.m. and Eric was still in his boxers. She smiled as she caught the outline of him in them when he answered the door.

“I’m good. I just felt like seeing you.”

He nodded before returning to the sports section laid out as he ate breakfast. He was unshaven, and she liked him this way — the way his rough beard scratched against her face when he took her in the mornings.

A Cheerio fell, fixing itself to his hairy chest, and that momentary urge of wanting him right there in the kitchen evaporated.

“With this new job I’ll be working a lot of nights, so … we may have some rearranging to do.”

He looked up slowly. “So moving in? That still on? Or are we gonna continue this way?” She sighed. His eyes lowered to the paper he stopped reading. He muttered, “If this is about me not working much …”

“No!” Her hand gripped his wrist. “It’s more a scheduling thing than anything else.”

Jackie was irritated with him, not knowing why. She was the one who cheated. She was the one full of guilt. She suddenly regretted even coming over, as if she was ever going to confess her sin. And it had nothing to do with Daisy.

He lifted the bowl and slurped down the last of the milk, a tiny trickle of it running down his chin. She realized she had nothing to be forgiven for anyway. Did she feel like forgiving his sloth? She waited for a response from him as if she had said it aloud.

“Okay.”

Daisy was standing over her desk sorting copies when Jackie came in.

“You’re late,” she said without looking up.

Jackie couldn’t resist taking the long way to her desk, arcing around to Daisy’s, and ran her fingers along the glass.

“Well, for some reason, I just couldn’t seem to get out of bed this morning.”

Her teasing grin went unnoticed and she slumped.

“Lucky for you, Ms. Tresh didn’t ask for you,” Daisy replied, finally looking up, then down again.

Jackie playfully scrunched her face, but that too went unnoticed and she shuffled to her desk. The afterglow, apparently, had gone out.

Still, he was ready to get down to work, feeling “normal” at last. Even Daisy’s brush-off didn’t deter her.

Her inbox was full, and she was eager to take on her new responsibilities with a clear head. No coffee today, she told herself. Yet, right there, in front of her was a still-steaming mug. She smiled a look to Daisy.

“I didn’t get that. That mousy girl in accounting brought it for you.”

“Who?”

“You know, Alina? You met her. Sitting right there?”

Daisy’s point was more like a stab.

“Ohhhh, right. Alina. I didn’t get her name. That was thoughtful.”

She didn’t want coffee. She considered just standing up and saying, “What the fuck, Daisy?” But … no. Maybe Daisy’s day was starting off lousy, and the last thing she wanted to do was alienate her only friend. Her one-off lover.

She got busy with work instead.

The day rushed by, Jackie was finally settling in. Twice she had gone into Lorraine’s office to have her sign some papers, but outside of “Yes, Jackie?” and “Thank you, Jackie” Lorraine barely acknowledged her. She only casually noticed the flowery candle smell in the air.

She had two cups of coffee, although she didn’t feel the surging caffeine rushes and sudden tiredness like the day before. The eye was always there, in the upper-right corner of her computer screen, but her eyes didn’t lock onto it and blank her out anymore. She was efficient. She barely spoke to Daisy, who was completely immersed in her own work.

Daisy was right. It must have been overload. She was just another worker bee around the hive now.

She tried not to think about Daisy. Or Lorraine. Or Sonya.

She talked to Eric a couple of times on the phone. She didn’t expect to see much of him—it was a football weekend—or feel the need to see him. Instead, she went out with her best friend, Charlotte, for a quiet night out on Saturday. She spent most of Sunday doing the “life” stuff she had been putting off.

She had researched WomaNation extensively before applying for the copywriter job. It was an amazing, growing company. But there was one news story that had caught her eye, and she read up on it more fully in the quiet solitude of her apartment.

A man named Lawrence Mortimer was the chairman of a company Lorraine Tresh had bought and merged into WomaNation. Apparently, it had been a brutal takeover. Jackie remembered hearing something about it on the evening news.

Mortimer sued, claiming that members of his inner circle had been “manipulated” into siding with Lorraine and her people. More than manipulated. Mortimer claimed it was something even more insidious. He claimed they had been brainwashed.

Jackie couldn’t help laughing at that. Yet, as she read on, she felt a chill down her back. On the first day of the trial, Mortimer needed to be restrained as he went on a wild tirade, speaking nonsense, swinging his arms, until finally he collapsed to the floor in convulsions.

He was institutionalized. The suit was dropped.

Jackie thought about her father, trapped in his own mind. Alone at St. Lucius. She wondered why Lorraine had asked about him.

Alina was waiting for the elevator, head down as usual, when Jackie returned from her lunch break on Monday. Daisy had begged out of joining her for lunch, although she was much friendlier about it than she had been on Friday. So she ate alone at a café down the street.

“Hi, Alina. Thanks for the coffee the other day. That was really sweet of you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I was a little surprised it had come from you. You didn’t seem like you wanted to talk to me.”

“It wasn’t that. I was just nervous. I’ve only been here a couple of days longer than you have.” She turned her head slightly and whispered: “My mom knows Ms. Tresh and sort of got me the job.”

The elevator opened and they entered. Alina hit the button for the third floor.

Alina was young, just out of high school probably. She was at least six inches shorter than Jackie, but her body was tight, her breasts full and perfectly round. Jackie wondered what kind of interesting knots they could tie each other into under the sheets.

Alina looked up and over to her innocently, and Jackie blushed—God, what’s in my head?

The doors opened and, after a beat, Alina stepped out, quickly turning.

“If there’s anything I can do …”

She stuck out her hand just as the doors began to close and Jackie barely caught the rub on her fingertips against Alina’s as the doors slid closed again.

Jackie exhaled hard. One night with Daisy and she was already looking for a new bedmate. With Alina? She had no idea where that idea had come from but it was in her head now, too late to push away.

The doors opened again, one of her first-day handshakers was waiting. They smiled to each other politely as Jackie stepped out. Wait. This isn’t right.

She hopped backward and looked up. Fifth floor. She hit the 6, unlit.

“I do that all the time,” the woman said without looking at her.

Daisy hadn’t returned from lunch when she got back, but the phones were ringing and Jackie quickly got back into work mode. Twenty minutes later, the intercom buzzed. It was Lorraine for Daisy.

“I’m not sure where she is, Ms. Tresh,” Jackie replied.

“Well, go find her for me now, would you please, Jacqueline?”

“Right away.”

Daisy wasn’t anywhere Jackie thought she might have been—the restrooms, the break stations, in layout with Ernie. Downstairs in accounting. She took the elevator down to the fifth floor.

She wasn’t sure why she got off there. Daisy had said the “executive offices” were off-limits, and the only other person she knew whose office was on the fifth was Sonya.

She walks slowly toward Sonya’s office warily. Would she hear the strange chanting again? Would she hallucinate again? Jackie breathed easier as she moved down the hallway and nothing happened. Maybe Sonya knew where Daisy was. It was worth it to ask her. To see her. Would she be wearing red again? Or maybe blue?

Then there was a low moan … heavy breathing. Gutteral sounds. Something hit the floor, metal squeaked. Two women—behind the same door as before.

Women fucking wildly, so wildly that Jackie could almost see the clothes pulled apart, legs straining to ensnare a hip, a thigh. The smacking of lips and the clacking of heels.

She nearly lost her balance leaning into the door, wanting to be closer, wanting to stay away. There was a sudden heat between her legs, and it forced her hand onto her breast. She didn’t think to knock. She opened the door.

The bodies inside didn’t react to the intrusion, to the shock of fluorescent light, to Jackie’s wide eyes. They were deep in the throes of untempered lust. Brown arms wrapped around white. Something was between their legs. Sweat-streaked blonde hair covered a shoulder as one body’s thrusts bucked the other against the shelving.

The heat, the smell of pussy, the panting breaths. Jackie was stunned by them and couldn’t move. Blonde hair fell away and a head turned. Daisy winked at Jackie.

“It’s okay, sweetie. You can watch. Mona can go all night!”

And there was a cackling laugh and a grunt. Jackie backed out of the storage room, one hand pulled at the door, the other … rubbed absently between her legs.

“Looking for me?”

Jackie spun around guiltily.

“No. No, I was looking for Daisy.”

Sonya was dressed in a sheer, blue robe which did nothing to hide the lingerie underneath. Devil in a blue robe … in the afternoon? The sides of Sonya’s mouth curled.

“I’m sure she’ll turn up. She’s a good pet, like you. Never straying far from home. Come with me.”

Jackie took a step but balked. She felt her wetness on her fingers.

“Jackie?” The smile was gone. “Follow me. It’s the right thing to do.”

Sonya is always right. Jackie followed her down the hallway.

Sonya led Jackie to a door around the corner. It was open and Jackie drifted inside and into a luxurious apartment. Expensive art, antique furniture, pillows and drapes and candles.

“I thought …”

Sonya let out a dismissive laugh. “That other office? I only use that for … getting to know the new employees. This is where I spend most of my time. Have a seat on the sofa. I won’t offer you coffee. You don’t need that unless you’re working.”

“I should get back …”

“There’s no rush. We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, you and I.” Sonya joined Jackie at the sofa and they sat down together. “We might as well start now.”

Jackie could feel Sonya’s eyes all over her.

“Go ahead, Jackie. Remember, you need to tell me the important things, so I can help you.”

Only one question came to mind.

“What happened to Lawrence Mortimer, Sonya?”

An eyebrow rose and it changed Sonya’s face.

“Interesting question. You’ve been thinking too much, babe. I suppose that should have been expected, leaving you all alone for two days. Idle minds.”

She kissed Jackie softly on the mouth and Jackie felt it through her hips.

“I can tell you exactly what happened to him. Lorraine melted his brain.”

A finger was pressed to her mouth before it could open.

“Shhhh … no thinking is right thinking, Jackie.”

Sonya unbuttoned Jackie’s blouse without protest and tossed it aside. Then the bra. These weren’t the hungry, dark eyes of Daisy. These were bright green and piercing. Jackie could feel the burn in the back of her head.

“You know what that’s like, don’t you, Jackie? Except, unlike you, she didn’t play with him. She just … left him that way.”

Sonya stood and twirled back. Jackie lunged forward as if being rewound on a spool. She staggered to her feet as Sonya walked backward slowly.

“He can’t feel the way you feel. Just now … feel that slide, babe? Everything being pushed back out the way. Not even thinking about how much you want me right now. It just is.”

A long strand of drool caught on Jackie’s nipple. Sonya stopped to admire it.

“Sink down now, Jackie. All the way.”

Jackie wobble slightly, like paper in the wind. Sonya took her hand and led her toward the bedroom.

“Sonya knows best.”

Jackie lay back on the bed without being told.

“We don’t need soften you up with that wretched coffee. We’ve already made you soft. Soft enough to bend without breaking. Malleable. Soft as clay to reform into something new.”

Sonya climbed on top of Jackie, forcing her head back and giving her throat a long, wet lick.

“That’s where you are now, Jackie. Farther along your path.”

She slid her tongue into Jackie’s mouth and licked her way toward her throat.

Jackie spasmed from the sensations. Her hands responded too, clawing at Sonya’s skin, pressing herself tighter against the slinking, gyrating body above her. She was all the way down with nothing but Sonya’s lust to occupy her mind.

“It’s much nicer down here, don’t you think?” She yanked down Jackie’s skirt and panties in one motion and pressed into her again. “In the depths of your mind. You and I together?”

Sonya bit into Jackie’s breast and she gasped, her eyes falling again into Sonya’s mind-numbing green.

“Oh, yes. There’s one other lovely benefit to having you and I so deep together. So far away from the world. No one can hear you when you scream.”

As if out of thin air, there was something leather in her hand. A cord. Sonya leaned down and pressed it to Jackie’s throat.

“I have a lot of toys we’ll be playing with, babe, but this one is my favorite. You see?”

She drew up the cord and ran it through her fingers. Jackie’s eyes caught on the weave as it went on and on.

“One end for when you are a bad girl for me.”

The end of the whip was knotted.

“And one end when you’re a good girl.”

Sonya flipped the handle over. It was thick, phallic. With the head of a snake.

Jackie raised her head, begging for a kiss. Sonya’s tongue and lips were cool like her hands, so unlike the devouring lips of Daisy. They were softer, pressing against Jackie in a way much subtler than domination but just as controlling.

Sonya slithered off the bed and faced Jackie, slowing unpeeling her clothes like a cobra shedding its scales. She beckoned Jackie with her finger.

Jackie was drawn to it, drawn to her.

“On your knees, pretty one.”

Jackie grabbed Sonya’s thigh as she sank, keeping her eyes fixed on that face. She started to lean in, but Sonya turned, exposing to Jackie the roundness of her ass. Sonya backed into her and Jackie instinctively began to lick. Then suck. Then tongue.

“Hadn’t been with a woman. Mmmm. Daisy was just an appetizer. You’ve never truly been with a woman until you’ve tasted her.”

Jackie felt the muscles contract and relax, forcing her tongue deeper. She had to breathe through her nose and swam in Sonya’s scent. Smoky with a hint of rose.

Sonya steered the hands on her hips between her legs and Jackie dug them deeply into the thick fur.

A wiggle pulled Jackie’s head back, and Sonya’s hips opened in front of her.

She saw fire. The fiery red around Sonya’s pussy, already slick. She felt a hand on the back of her head as she was drawn inside.

All was red.

She was in Sonya’s bedroom at night. She could feel the cooling of sexual steam in the air on her face. Maybe it was cum.

The flicker of a candle near the bed danced on the ceiling as Jackie lay back, trying to slow her breathing. She scarcely noticed when Sonya rolled over, propped on an arm and stared at her breasts rising and falling.

“How are you and Daisy getting along?”

Jackie stiffened. Was this today or tomorrow? How did she know about her and Daisy?

“Oh …” The deep sigh lowered Jackie’s breasts again and Sonya tempted a nipple with her fingers.

“Remember, lover, you need to tell me all the important things. Sonya knows best.”

Jackie rolled onto her side to face her. Her ass was sore but not unbearably so. Evidently, she had been a good girl. Fingers danced across her chest to her shoulder. Sonya knows. Sonya knows best. What was on her mind was Sonya’s to take.

“She’s moved on.” Jackie tried saying it with a laugh. The laugh caught in her throat. “As she would say, ‘It is what it is.’”

“But you liked it.”

Jackie didn’t want to say it out loud, but she said it out loud.

“Not like this.”

A hand stroked her cheek, and Jackie wished to sink again and not have to think about it. Instead, Sonya’s eyes held her in place.

“Tell me the rest, Jackie.”

Jackie wanted to fool herself, want to believe that the face so close to her was hers, not the other way around. She wanted to believe that this moment of quiet tenderness was the reality and the crude, lustful sex was the fantasy. She realized, then, they were indistinguishable.

“Daisy said you were promoted. And it wasn’t really a promotion.”

A quick nod came with the breathy laugh. Sonya leaned back and grabbed a pack of cigarettes off the nightstand.

“Lorraine wants Daisy to think she’s special.”

Sonya lit one and shook out the match. Jackie’s eyes started to drift up with the smoke but Sonya’s exhale drew her back. “It’s as simple as that.”

Jackie couldn’t tell her small smile peeked out—God! This woman!—but Sonya’s eyes sparkled even in the orange candleglow to see it there.

“I can’t help it if I think Daisy is a vapid waste of physical talent. Lorraine enjoys fucking her brains out.” She took a second drag and snuffed it out, catching Jackie again in her eyes. “And fucking her brains out.”

Sonya threw her leg across Jackie’s body, pinning their breasts together.

“So that’s that. Now. Tell me about your friend Charlotte.”

She checked the time and date on her computer. It was Thursday. She looked over at Daisy, who turned from her computer in the same moment and gave Jackie a sly smile. She hadn’t seen that look from Daisy since that night …

God! She had to get out of here. She stared at the empty coffee cup. She looked up and into the eye on her screen. No. No! No?

She stood up and moved sluggishly around her desk, the pull of the invisible rope once again leading her to the door. She knocked twice.

“Yes?”

Lorraine wasn’t behind her desk. She was on one of the long, silk couches reading. Jackie didn’t know what prompted her here, now. She still hadn’t gotten used to being under Lorraine’s eye.

A tea set and two books were on the glass table, its crystal legs shimmering in the daylight. Lorraine took off her reading glasses, placing one of the tips in her mouth.

“Yes, Jackie?”

“I …”

“Sit beside me,” Lorraine replied, patting a cushion. “Would you like some tea? I’ve only just brewed it.”

Jackie could feel the warmth of the cup in her hand. She was already sitting.

“Oh … okay.”

“I know we haven’t had much chance to chat since you started. As you know, the January edition is due at the printers tomorrow, so it’s been a bit of a rush.” Jackie heard before noticing the tinkle-tinkle of Lorraine’s spoon stirring her tea.

“I have a few moments now to talk. What do you need?”

Jackie struggled to find the words. Any words.

“Lorraine … Ms. Tresh, I … I think I need to leave. Quit.”

“Is that so.”

It wasn’t a question. Tinkle-tinkle. The stirring forced Jackie’s eyes downward to her own cup.

“That’s distressing to hear, Jackie. Do you not like it here?”

“It’s not that …”

What was it? There was nothing wrong with the job. She could do the work, had been. She did everything perfectly, evidently. She just couldn’t remember doing any of it.

“Your job performance has been excellent so far, dear,” Lorraine said calmly, twisting slowly to face her. “Everyone has a place, Jackie. You’re young. Things change. But, right now, your place is here.”

Jackie didn’t know what to say next. It wasn’t like she had planned this when she woke up that morning. She didn’t even remember waking up.

She thought about Lawrence Mortimer and the lawsuit. Lorraine had melted his brain, Sonya said. She thought about her father. She thought about how she could have possibly gotten this job, a job she hadn’t even applied for. She thought about Sonya. And her whip.

“I’m sorry,” she said at last, “I can’t seem to concentrate at work. I know I’m doing what I’ve been told. But by the time I get … when I’m not at the office I don’t remember much of anything.”

“Things do get hectic at times,” Lorraine said. “I’ve had no complaints about your performance.” Lorraine brushed a few stray hairs from Jackie’s eyes. “Has everyone been treating you well, dear? Daisy, perhaps?”

“Yes, yes, of course.”

Lorraine leaned back. “Drink your tea, dear. It should calm you down a bit. Let’s try to resolve this issue together. Put you at ease.”

Jackie drank her tea, herbal with a biting bitterness, but its warmth soothed her.

“Now, I’m going to ask you ten questions, dear. And I want you to answer each one as simply as you can. Whatever comes to mind. You can do that for me, can’t you, dear?”

“Yes, Lorraine.”

“Good. Let’s begin. Ten. You trust me, don’t you?”

Jackie wasn’t sure anymore. Who else had had their mind melted by this intimidating and powerful woman? But an answer came to mind.

“Yes.”

“Nine. And you want to know why I hired you.”

“Yes.”

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime, Jacqueline. The money is good. You’ve been able to afford a new wardrobe. One more suitable. Very lovely dress too, by the way. You enjoy how you look now. Eight. Do you enjoy the stares you get? The way everyone wants to … touch you?”

“Y-yes.”

“Seven. You don’t want to be with Eric anymore. Do you?”

She knew they were done. Eric wasn’t the type to come back begging.

“No.”

“You were never able to feel, with him, the way you’ve felt with Sonya. So delightfully submissive. Six. You enjoy the submission, don’t you, dear?”

Images of Sonya began to fill her. The decadent sex, pain and pleasure and wanting. Yet also there were the moments of Sonya’s soft lips, her fingers, of being wanted. And belonging.

“N—… yes.”

“You want to know why I haven’t taken you. I could you know. Daisy was a test. And, like everything else you’ve done for me, you did wonderfully. Five. Do you long to be between Sonya’s legs now? Being owned by her? Perhaps you don’t even know why?”

“Yes. I …”

“Go on.”

“I don’t know why.”

“If there’s been a problem, anything upsetting, it may be that you simply didn’t understand. And that’s … understandable. Not being able to understand. Thinking can be a chore. But you’re ready to understand. What we do here.”

Lorriane reached for one of the books on the table. Dried leaves on top. Jackie couldn’t think of what Lorraine would be doing. She was feeling fuzzy-headed. Limp.

“The magazine is a means to an end,” she said, lifting the cup. “And, in that end, it’s all about control. You realize that now, don’t you, Jacqueline? All those years reading my magazine. Staring into my eye. Memorizing the mantras in your head. Seeing all those beautiful women, and wanting to touch them and be touched.

“Changing your behaviors, changing who you are just by being told. Reading the articles. Taking their advice on how to live your life. Everyone who reads my magazine is learning, just as you are. Knowing your place in the world.”

The cup began rotating in her hand, fingers dancing on its edge.

“Four. You know where your place in the world truly is, don’t you, Jacqueline?”

Jackie felt herself leaning back. All she could see where Lorraine’s eyes. The eye. The eye that watched her every day. The eye knew everything.

“Yes.”

“Yes. Three. And you want to be here. You don’t want to ever leave. Do you?”

“No …”

“No. You want to stay here. With me. With Sonya. And continue down your path. Your journey is almost over, dear.”

Jackie felt her hands pulled above her head but could see Lorraine’s hands, dabbing the silk handkerchief with the red stain of blood into her teacup.

“You are beginning to enjoy this feeling. Thoughts drifting away. Leaving only simple truths behind. Two. You need to submit now, don’t you?”

Her eyes rolled back as new sensations took her body. Hands … so many hands.

“Yessss.”

“Uro,” she heard Lorraine utter, and the kerchief burst into flames inside the cup.

“One. Who are you?”

“I am …” Jackie shook, her hips spasmed. Hands everywhere. Her nipples were on fire. Her hands numb.

“I am … my mother’s daughter!”

She could see only white.

It was dark outside but morning was approaching.

Standing in the middle of Sonya’s bedroom she frantically tried to pull on her panties while hopping on one foot—in the dark, without making a sound, with the last remnants of cum trailing down the inside of one thigh.

She froze.

She had done this before. Yesterday? And the day before? And the day before. Had it been two weeks?

A mindless ritual. Leave her office at 5, take the elevator down one floor to Sonya’s apartment and never leave. Emptied out and fucked by Sonya. How Sonya chose to amuse herself on a particular night may have changed slightly, but the results were the same. The rawness between her legs. The bites on her neck she’d need to cover with concealer when she got home.

The new lie to Eric.

She didn’t even bother returning his calls when she was “free.” He was becoming a distant memory. She couldn’t even remember his smell.

All she had were bits and pieces—of working in the office, what she did and who she talked to, what she even ate for lunch that afternoon. It was as if being spread out before Lorraine never happened. It was easier to believe the lie. To understand that what may have happened to her then didn’t matter at all now.

“All awake, are we? You don’t have to leave, you know.”

Sonya was sitting up in her king-size bed, her bent knees under covers hiding her breasts.

“Yes, I do.”

“No, babe, you don’t. You can stay here with me. You can just come right back in bed with me. Nice and warm and comfortable …”

“Stop it!”

Was this part of the game? Did she say no every night—every morning—only to return here again when the sun set?

“You know that you want to. Who knows best?”

“Sonya knows best …”

Jackie groaned and threw down the blouse in her hand.

“Godammit! No, I don’t. I don’t! You’re making me want to!”

Sonya stretched out her arms like a tigress after a nap.

“Does that matter? Where the need comes from? Regardless, you still want me. Don’t you? Come on. Tell me you want me.”

“I …”

“Go on, say it.”

“No.”

“No? Do you want this to be the end? You’ll never see me … like this … again.”

She threw off the blanket and Jackie’s eyes took in the curves and smoothness that her hands had felt only moments before. She wanted that body. She needed it.

“No.”

“Then say it.”

“I … I want you.”

The smirk Sonya saved for when she wanted to be her most biting cut Jackie in half.

“Now say it like you mean it.”

“I fucking want you! Okay! You know that I do. I can barely control how badly I want you. You did something to my brain! All of you! Lorraine … you made me think like this, made me obsessed with you!”

The more agitated Jackie became, the calmer and quieter Sonya became.

“Yes, Jackie, we did. And now you’ll do anything I say. Won’t you? I said won’t you?”

“What did you do to me?”

Jackie didn’t see Sonya light the cigarette but a wave of smoke from an ashtray on the nightstand flowed toward her like an elongated tongue.

“Spells.”

“Spells?”

“Yes. The simple answer to a simple question.”

“What? I … I don’t understand.”

Sonya put her arms out and wriggled forward slowly on the bed, the heavy smoke curling back to dance on her fingertips.

“What did I do to you? They were spells, babe. Everyone is under a spell of one sort or the other. Sometimes it just takes the right phrase to set them in motion.”

Jackie wanted to say it was a joke … but she knew it wasn’t. The smoke. The incense. The chanting. The mantras. The hands. The coffee and the wine. The eye! She shuddered thinking about what could be in the donuts.

She had been led willingly—was it willingly?—like a lamb to the slaughterhouse. Sheared of her willpower and cut open, naked and helpless.

Sonya’s sympathetic tone felt mocking as she manipulated the smoke with her hands.

“Everyone lives under a spell, Jackie. Love? Guilt? Envy? The seven deadly sins? Those are spells, lover. Of course, some spells aren’t sins, my hot-bodied Jackie, but all sins are spells.”

With a sharp wave of her hand the smoke dissipated. Jackie just stood there, half-dressed and open-mouthed. Sonya crawled to the foot of the bed, raising her ass delectably in the air.

“Now you’ll do whatever I want. Won’t you, my good girl?”

Good … God!

Jackie collapsed to the floor. She cried from her lungs. There was no way out of this revolving nightmare. There was no reality. No sense of time. No Jackie.

Sonya let her cry.

“Good girl. So you go on home, maybe to that boyfriend of yours if he’s still around. But be at work by 9. Then, after work, you’ll be back. Sonya is always right.”

“I won’t!” Jackie rose to her knees. “No! Not this time.”

“I could make you to come back, Jackie. I won’t even need to conjure anything. You remember what that’s like. Hmm? No, I can make your mind melt just sitting at your desk. Or watching my ass as I walk down the hallway.

“Everyone has an owner, Jackie. And I’m yours.”

The familiar phrase took on a new, terrible meaning and she trembled.

“I could make you beg. Or drool. Or rub yourself like a bitch in heat. I can always make you come back to me. And you’d do it. Like an eager little puppy returning to her owner. Wouldn’t you?”

There was no denying the truth now. Jackie damned herself with one word.

“Yes.”

“That’s right. But I don’t have to. You’ll come back all on your own now. I’m in your mind that much. You’re going to come back, again and again. Until you beg me to finish you. But … that’s Lorraine’s decision to make.”

Sonya’s eyes lowered and smiled wickedly. Jackie was absently rubbing herself through her panties.

“That’s what you want, isn’t it? To be willing? To come to me out of your own need?”

Jackie caught herself, yanking her hand away. The desire to lick her fingers betrayed her protest.

“No!”

Sonya wiggled her ass in delight. She could read Jackie’s thoughts so easily.

“No? Jackie, you always come to me. It makes you wet just thinking about what I’ll do to you tonight, doesn’t it? Thinking about coming back here, unable to stop yourself, falling to your knees and begging me to empty out your head and leave nothing but blank, wet obedience? Then fucking your brains out.

“Doesn’t that just make you so hot? Answer honestly, Jackie.”

“I …”

“Yes?”

There were no more defenses, and Jackie knew it. She could see in Sonya’s glittering eyes that she knew Jackie knew it.

“Oh God … yes! Yes, it does!”

“Good girl. Sonya does know best. Now, hurry up, get going. You’ll be late for work.”

Jackie dressed clumsily as Sonya watched. So much shame. Yet deep inside there was also arousal, knowing Sonya had her, owned her. Wanted her. She turned to head for the door, but Sonya wasn’t finished with her quite yet.

“I’ll be around this afternoon and I expect to see you. I’ll be upstairs after I’ve finished breaking little Charlotte and bringing her into the fold.”

Jackie dropped her purse. A heavy wave of numbness covered her. Charlotte. She told Sonya about Charlotte. When was that? I haven’t heard from Charlotte in … has it been a week? Or two?

She was sinking again and there were no incense. No wine. There was only Sonya. All those nights with Sonya. And all the while, Sonya was doing something to Charlotte. And Jackie KNEW!

She rubbed her knees together. Her best … friend … breaking. Broken by Sonya.

Sonya rose from the bed and her familiar nakedness made Jackie’s clit twitch. She walked across the room, fire between her legs. Those perfect, biting teeth. Jackie’s head lolled to one side, exposing her neck.

A fingernail scraped up the side of it; Jackie squirted into her panties. She heard Sonya’s teasing moan.

“Charlotte worked out so well that I think you should deliver another of your friends right away,” she whispered, tantalizingly close to Jackie’s ear. She was predatory. She jabbed two fingers into the slit, still slick and turgid. “Tonight, I think. You still have a lot to prove.”

Jackie’s mindless nod was more like a bow as Sonya grabbed the purse and opened the door for her. Sonya was allowing this helpless prey to escape.

“Oh, and Jackie? Make sure she’s a blonde. Hmm?”

THE END OF CHAPTER TWO